The Maine FERC/Hydropower Program
Overview
MEFO staff provides technical evaluations on the effects of hydroelectric power projects to fish and wildlife resources. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations, as authorized by the Federal Power Act, and the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, require license applicants and licensees to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) prior to and after project licensing, so the Service may provide FERC with:
- recommendations for the protection, mitigation of damages to, and enhancement of fish and wildlife resources for licensed projects;
- mandatory prescriptions for fish passages;
- mandatory conditions for the protection, mitigation of damages to, and enhancement of fish and wildlife resources for exempted projects; and
- mandatory terms and conditions to provide for the protection and utilization of Service lands upon which proposed hydropower projects may be located.
MEFO’s involvement in the FERC Hydropower program provides opportunities to:
- implement upstream and downstream ;
- restore more natural river flows downstream from projects;
- restore flows to dewatered river reaches;
- protect and enhance aquatic and fish and wildlife habitat;
- reduce reservoir fluctuations;
- protect listed species;
- improve water quality.
This effort integrates many of the Service's programs as we coordinate our hydropower activities with our Endangered Species, Partners for Fish and Wildlife, and Environmental Response and Restoration programs, when applicable. We also work closely with the Gulf of Maine Coastal Program and our Fisheries and Aquatic Conservation Division on fish restoration and with fishway engineers on fish passage designs.
Success in the hydropower program requires a long-term project planning commitment (the FERC licensing process averages 5-6 years to complete) and many years of post-license implementation, follow-up and compliance verification. However, these activities reap tremendous long-term (40-50 years) fish and wildlife benefits.
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Hydro Licensing/Re-licensing
Licenses issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are typically issued for periods of 40 to 50 years. Therefore, the licensing/relicensing process represents a critical opportunity to secure measures to protect, conserve, and enhance fish and wildlife resources potentially affected by project construction and/or operation. FERC also issues exemptions from licensing, which never expire. Therefore, it is very important for the Service to participate in exemption proceedings to ensure the exemption contains terms and conditions that minimize potential adverse environmental impacts of the project.
Within the FERC permitting process there are opportunities for the Service (and other stakeholders) to request studies it deems necessary in order to provide information that will assist in development of recommendations, terms and conditions, or prescriptions that the FWS then submits to FERC for potential inclusion in any license issued for the project.
As a result of many dams constructed in New England (from the time of colonization through the Industrial Revolution and beyond), there are many hydropower projects in the region. The "Class of '93" was a term used to describe the large number of hydropower projects whose licenses all expired around the same time (1993). Right now another "class" of projects is up for relicensing. The North Atlantic-Appalachian Region (which stretches from Maine to Virginia) has the largest relicensing workload in the country over the next few years. Because existing and project future workload exceeds staffing, MEFO's hydropower program has to prioritize projects, working on those that are important to the tribes, our State counterparts, and align with the Service's mission, initiatives, and priorities.
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Fish Passage and Aquatic Connectivity
Americans derive significant economic and recreational enjoyment from healthy rivers, aquatic habitats, and the fish and wildlife that inhabit freshwater ecosystems. MEFO biologists works to improve and maintain those benefits for Americans by restoring access to important habitat and conserving the quantity and quality of habitat within rivers.
Barriers, such as dams, can prevent movement of both sea-run and resident riverine fishes. MEFO works closely with tribal, state, Federal, and non-government partners, as well as dam owners, to improve aquatic connectivity as part of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) permitting process, through the institution of effective upstream and downstream fish passage.
Facilities include physical structures, flows required to operate those structures effectively, and in some cases operational measures. Fish ladders or lifts facilitate movement of anadromous fish to upstream spawning and rearing habitat. While the catadromous American eel may use ladders and lifts while migrating to upstream rearing habitat, dedicated eelways are usually more effective. Downstream passage systems typically include exclusionary screening over trashracks to prevent fish from becoming entrained in the hydropower turbine(s) as well as a safe way to move fish downstream (such as a surface bypass).
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Species of Interest
Click on the names below for additional information on species that occur at hydropower projects in Maine:
